Letter #54 - 9/23/14

Ciao Famiglia! come state?! :)

This week has been sooooo long, haha. Literally so much has happened, ahh. Well where to start - we had a super cool family home evening at one of our member’s houses the other day with one of our investigators and a lot of other members and it went so well! They all loved it and I ate like a million different types of meat; it was crazy. Sorella nilsen and I did a lesson on perdono (forgiveness) and they loved it. We did a little backpack object lesson thing and it was super cool. Oh and today we ran into a couple (from Utah) here from the cruise ship and they ran over and talked to us and gave us some food they had and took a picture with us. They were sooooo nice! we were so happy to see them :) small Mormon world.

Last night two random men asked to take pictures of us, it was so was weird - oh Italy. Sorella nilsen let me cut her hair this week, haha so that was fun. Mom my hair is ridiculously long, you would seriously freak out. It needs to be cut so badly, ahha ahh. I will probably chop it when I get home. I imagine 18 months of being in a braid isn’t super healthy, haha oh well.

Funny story, we got home late the other night so the zone leaders told us we had to sing them a song on the phone to make up for it and they requested “If you could hie to Kolob”. So my companion and I did a singing/beepboxing duet to “If you could hie to Kolob” for them. It was hilarious and they were very impressed – ovviamente (obviously).

Tonight we are restarting our English class so pray for us! We are hoping tons of people come and that at least a couple of them will be interested in talking with us a little more. We’ve been getting tons of phone calls and stuff about it so we are really hopeful.

Oh and yesterday I had a PB&J for lunch; I almost cried I was so happy. It was so good – blessed day.

I think that’s everything! Ravenna is great, Sorella Nilsen is great, and I just love life over here. Our investigators are doing good! One came to church for relief society for the first time ever on Sunday so that was a huge miracle :)

Hope all is well back home! love and miss you!

Sorella Yost

Letter #53 - 9/16/14

Ciao Famiglia!

How are you all?? Mom, how was your birthday?? :) Well this week has been nuts here in Ravenna.

One of our branch members passed away after being in the hospital for 104 days, so we had his funeral last Saturday. It was a really peaceful day; he suffered for a really long time and was 80 something years old, I believe. But I played the piano at the funeral and we did it in our little church building and then went to the cemetery. The cemeteries here are so different; all the tombstones are huge, literally like little houses. So crazy.

And then also the mom of another one of our branch members passed away this week so we went to her funeral in a Catholic church on Monday morning before district meeting. She was older as well and had been sick for quite some time; it was a really peaceful service for her as well. It was really cool to see all of our members really coming together to support each other. I just love this little branch with all my heart. Good thing I’m here for 6 more weeks :) also.

Guess what? Sorella Jarvis is getting transferred to Rimini! So she is going to be my sister training leader for the last 6 weeks of her mission!!!!! I’M sooooooooo excited! ahhh I love her so much - so that will be fun :)

Also, scary story form the week... remind me to tell you that one when I get home mom ;) haha

But yeah we are doing well :) Sorella Nilsen and I are excited we get to stay together for 6 more weeks :) We just love each other, it’s great. The other day I climbed out of the bathroom window to get on the balcony and scare her from the kitchen window, it was priceless, haha so much fun. My daughter is such a good sport for putting up with me ;) haha.

Also we are starting up our English class again next week so we have been doing a TON of publicity for that and have seen so much success. We are so excited for it to restart, like literally one lady we went up to give her a flyer threw down her cigarette (big deal) and jumped up and hugged us she was so excited. She said it was a birthday gift from God that we were teaching a free English class, haha, so yeah, it’s going to be fantastic. can’t wait.

Also, yesterday I saw one of the biggest miracles so far on the mission. Sorella Nilsen and I were having a little bit of a tough day and just weren’t feeling too good, and our appointments cancelled, and we just had literally an entire day of finding. So we were just feeling super discouraged and just felt really alone and like no one really cared. As the end of the night came along and we were doing casa and getting rejected house after house, our phone randomly rang and it was our branch mission leader - literally one of my favorite people in the whole world. So I answered and he was like Ciao Sorella! Can you be at the church by 7pm? and we were like of course, we will be there, thinking he wanted to have correlation or something, - he said okay perfect – meet you there, I have something for you. And we were like okay so we got on our bikes and rode over to the church, having no idea what to expect. So we get there and wait a couple minutes and then in comes our branch mission leader with a huge smile on his face carrying...a bag of chicken. Literally, a big rotisserie chicken. He shook our hands, and handed it over to us and told us he got us some pollo. We were just kind of shocked, haha, he said he bought two and thought he should give us one. Then he shook our hands again and told us to have a great night and left just like that. It was so crazy. He just randomly brought us a chicken, on the day we were struggling the most and feeling so useless. Fratello Pogg brought us a chicken. It was like in 17 miracles when that lady doesn’t know how she’s going to keep going and then a pie appeared. Such a huge miracle. We knew that Heavenly Father was watching over us and heard our prayers. He sent us Fratello Pogg and the chicken so that we would know that everything was going to be okay and that he is aware of us. The miracle of the chicken, I will never forget it.

Hope all is well! Love and miss you so much! I hope you have a fun week with Grandma and Grandpa!

Vi voglio bene! (I love you!)

Sorella Yost

 

 

Letter #52 - 9/9/14

Ciao Famiglia!

Looks like everyone is doing so good and getting back into the groove of school :) man. Early morning seminary, haha - good luck Anna! I totally know how you feel. I did that (slept in) all the time and then Abbi would be waiting down stairs for me and I would totally get all the blame for being late ;) haha, but I graduated. Good job on the first cheer and soccer and football games to everyone! I wish I was there to see it all! But right now I’m glad I’m here :) thanks for all the pictures! Helped me feel like I was there too ;) oh man.

This week was crazy. I feel like I say that every week but it is always true, haha.  My bad luck with bikes struck again unfortunately and we were at the bike shop like every single day. Dumb. But all is well now I have a new bike! Blessed be the day. His name is Joey. Funny story though real quick, so we went in on Saturday night to trade in Helga and they gave me Joey.  I was like on Cloud 9 on the bike ride home; just so happy to have a reliable bike. Then on Sunday morning we get on our bikes and start biking to church and....flat tire. My front tire had a huge gapping whole in it. I legit almost cried, haha. So we locked up our bikes at the church and walked everywhere the rest of the day.  Then on Monday we took it back to the bike shop and they gave me a brand new tire for free and fixed it in like 10 minutes. Blessed, they took pity on me, hahah - so now I’m good to go and I didn’t have to carry my grocery bag while I biked home for the first time in 2 transfers, it was so great. I love Joey, he’s a really good bike.

My 1 year mark was super good! Sorella Nilsen made me pancakes for breakfast :) what a perfect daughter I have ;) haha, and we have a new investigator who is super great and currently reading the Book of Mormon and praying for an answer – so we are really praying hard for her. She is super Brava (good) and we just love her already. She is also really reliable and follows up on her commitments which is super refreshing. She’s just brava.

We had a big FHE and dinner at our Branch President’s house last Friday night with one of our investigators and her husband and it went really, really well. They loved it, so that was a huge success. And between us and the Anziani we had 8 investigators and 4 less actives in church on Sunday so we were super happy about that and someone from the Stake Presidency came and talked to our branch about really coming together and being united so that our branch can become a WARD sometime soon in the future. Ahhh, we want Ravenna to become a ward so badly. We just have to work really hard and I know it will happen one day - our branch is so amazing. They are like a big family and they totally deserve to become a ward. I love them so much.

Last night we got to watch the Europe-Area Women’s broadcast and it was so good, loved it. Elder Bednar and Elder Ballard talked and it was really, really amazing. If you can...watch it :) Also, can i just say how excited I am for General Conference?! it’s so soon! ahh. Can’t wait.

This week I went on a scambio with Sorella Killpack! It was so fun, love that girl. She’s in the same group as Sorella Jarvis and Carter so she has one transfer left, so weird.

Well I think that is all for this week, thanks for all your prayers! :) I love and miss you so much! ma ci vediamo presto! statemi bene! vi volgio un sacco di mene! mai dimenticarlo! :)

Sorella Alli 

 

 

Letter #51 - 9/2/14

Ciao Famiglia!

So first of all. ONE YEAR!!! How weird is that? Can’t believe it. It’s been one of the craziest most amazing years ever and I’m so excited for the 6 months still ahead.

So weird to think everyone back home is starting school again. Good luck :) that’s so cool Anna is going to Eastlake! Go wolves. And Will is in middle school and Abbi is a high school senior! When I realize things like that it makes me feel like I’ve been gone forever.

So this week was really good! I got all your packages! Thank you so much! I loved them! Best famiglia eva. And guess what, we played UNO last week at our youth activity and I thought of you guys, haha. That’s our family game for sure :)

Oh and this week I had a little bike accident. We turned a corner and our bike lock fell out of my basket and went through the front bike tire and stopped it completely and I kind of did a reverse wheelie and everything flew out of my basket. Luckily there was a cute little old man that ran and picked up all my stuff for me.  He was so sweet. I was fine, I just got slammed in to my handle bars a little bit so a little bruised but I’m fine. The only problem was that my brakes were jammed so my tires wouldn’t move AT ALL. So I had to carry my bike home on my back for like half a mile, or so, haha. We got some funny looks but hey, it was a good work out. The anziani (Elders) fixed it for me and they told me to still take it in to get it looked at – so we did and they tightened the brakes and now my bike squeaks every time I ride. Helga (bike’s name) is just struggling in her old age, haha, but it’s all good.

And one of our investigators is doing so awesome and just waiting for the day she can be baptized. She and her boyfriend are waiting for his divorce to be legalized so they can be married and she can be baptized. So we are praying a lot for her and for everything to work out for them. We’ve had some investigators break our hearts this week but we are just pushing along and know everything will work out. We have the faith :)

On Monday I went back to Firenze for a zone conference! haha so weird to go back...again. and I got to see Sorella Jarvis and Hoffman! So fun to see them again :) and my girls form Montevarchi all went to EFY last week and LOVED it so I am so happy for them :) so cool.

Well I think that is all for this week! Good luck with school and thanks for all the pics from the Hood Canal vacation :) looks like it was so much fun :)

Love and miss you and see you in 6 months! :) 

Vi voglio bene! (I love you)

Sorella Yost